Resources for “Ten Lessons about Being a Learner-Centered Teacher”
The July 6 Alban Weekly article, “Ten Lessons about Being a Learner-Centered Teacher,” explains how Wayne Whitson Floyd came to focus on “the central role of the learner in the process of forming and sustaining vital leadership for congregational life.” The lessons he has learned about what that means are outlined in his article. They emphasize shifting from a subject- and teacher-centered model of learning to one that is process- and learner-centered. They also emphasize the importance of community—particularly community that involves conversation between and among those who think differently from one another. And they emphasize lifelong learning in a broad array of contexts—not only in seminary-based “continuing education” courses.
Some excellent resources are listed at the end of the article; please check them out! In addition, let me point you to two works by educator and writer Parker Palmer: To Know as We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey, and The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life. As Floyd points out in his article, “learning that matters always involves the deepening of our capacities not just of the head but of heart and hands as well.” Much of Palmer’s work explores this point in great detail and with numerous examples.
You may also enjoy Dennis Campbell’s Congregations as Learning Communities: Tools for Shaping Your Future, as well as the work of Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization). And please consider Isa Aron’s Becoming a Congregation of Learners: Learning as a Key to Revitalizing Congregational Life.
What are your thoughts about this week’s Alban Weekly? And what resources do you recommend?
Looking for learner-centered resources for Sunday School teachers and Sunday School teachers training.
Maria Harris’s book, Teaching and Religious Imagination, is a great resource for finding out how to get in touch with people’s religious imaginations.
Wayne: Thanks for a great article. This is such an important concept. I think it is tremendously important for every teacher to know their own learning style in order to better understand the people in the group they are leading. If we are lifelong learners about ourselves, we are better equipped to help others on the journey. All the resources cited are excellent. I would encourage people responsible for training group leaders to also explore the work of Howard Gardiner and the very accessible online resources for VARK.
“Learner -centered” teaching and mastering a field of knowledge are not mutually exclusive. Teachers teach students subjects. That discipline not only assumes a healthy relationship between the “master” and the “disciple,” but also that the former truly has mastered their field, and that the latter is truly motivated to master it as well. The rest is merely technique. Good technique can certainly aid in the teaching process, but no amount of technique can make up for a fundamental ignorance of the subject one is intending to teach, or a basic lack of motivation on the part of the learner to learn.
Great article, Wayne! You touch on something that I am currently wrestling with in my context. For the past few years I have been drawn to becoming more and more a “learner-centered teacher.” The old hierarchical models don’t fit well with my personality at all especially after reading Paulo Friere’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The tension there is that I’m in my first full year of pastoring and a pretty good percentage of the parishioners have come to expect a “top-down/ expert-empty vessel” dynamic when it comes to how they view a pastor. We’re slowly inviting people to imagine a congregation where we all bring our wisdom and our ignorance to the table so that we all may learn. We’re starting the shift in Sunday School and Bible Study and seeing some promising transformations. VBS starts tonight and I’m going with just some Questions for Reflection that hopefully will cull forth enough substance from the class that they’ll help guide where we go for the remainder of the week.
Ed: I’m with you. I’m looking for learner-centered resources as well for our Sunday School teachers and their related “training.” The materials that we have traditionally used don’t foster the type of community learning that I feel God is inviting us toward. We currently can’t get folks to volunteer to teach S.S. because they feel they don’t “know enough.” I imagine that if we moved toward a more “learner-centered” model that some of those fears would be resolved.
Thanks Elizabeth for the info on VARK!
I have heard this distinction made as between (a) the teacher at the front and (b) the coach at the side. Alternatively, the distinction between the (a) coach and (b) the personal trainer. The distinction is like much of religion, relatively easy to SAY, it is very hard to DO.
Fantastic article!
Unlock have been advocating a leaner centred approach to Bible engagement for some time, have a look at the website for examples of the learner centred approach in action, particularly in urban contexts.
In Liverpool starting in September they are offering a course called Unlock DIY to support teachers / facilitators in the process of creating their own learner centred resources. There are also project workers in Glasgow, Birmingham and Sheffield.
Right on, Wayne. We can’t offer enough help like this to teachers to re-think (or begin to think through) their pedagogy. When I was “lecturing” at the Myanmar Institute of Theology (Burma) this past winter, I was asked by the principal to offer a lecture on pedagogy, because he was concerned that the faculty was stuck in the old “banking” model of teaching: the teacher has all the knowledge and wisdom and must either transfer what they know (i.e., lecture) to the students, or the students must make “withdrawals” from the bank by asking questions. As I made out my outline for the session, I realized that not only did I need to explain the principles you outlined in your paper, but I needed to model them, too. Otherwise, I would be at risk of perpetuating the banking model even when I was teaching them to avoid it! If anyone would like to see my lesson plan I developed for the faculty workshop, just write me at tim.geoffrion@fhlglobal.org.